Posted by TCYonline.com on June 9, 2010
Contributed By Bharat Jhurani
The CAT results have been declared and IIM hopefuls are now focussed on acing the secong leg of the admissions process — the group discussions (GD) and the personal interview (PI).
To help students prepare themselves for all the possible twists and turns a personal interview can take, we publish first-hand experiences of students who managed to breeze through their PI and others who crashed and burned.
Here, Bharat Jhurani, a first-year student at IIM Lucknow, shares his interview experience as a part of the CAT selection process.
I am an electronics and communications engineer from the GITAM college of engineering (Non-NIT, IIT!), Visakhapatnam and I graduated in 2007(yup, a fresher!).
My lone IIM call — after all those arduous AIM CATS — topping them, working hard and even managing a 99.36 percentile in CAT — was from IIM Lucknow. One single IIM call! The reason? My slightly low score in the Verbal Ability section.
Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk. I decided to give this my best shot.
My group discussion and interview were scheduled on February 17 at 2 pm, the venue being Hotel Monarch, Bangalore. I was made part of Panel II and my number was 9 (why is it always Number 9?). I was called in for the GD and the essay at about 3 pm. There were two panel members presiding and 12 of us within the group. IIM-L is known for assigning abstract topics and it maintained its reputation upon this particular occasion. The topic? ‘The most effective way to eradicate poverty is through effective governance’.
As soon as it was dictated, we were asked to write a small essay in about 150 words within 5 minutes. After the stipulated time, the papers were taken away, leaving us to discuss the topic. With such an open-ended topic thrown in, it was literally a fish fight in the beginning — everyone was hurling in whatever facts they had at hand and I was no exception! I piped up quite a number of times during the process. Overall it was a pretty good GD, but it could have been better.
Then came the time for personal interviews — they were pretty short and I presented myself before the panel at 4:30 pm. It comprised of the same individuals who presided over the GD. My interview lasted for all of six minutes.
As I entered I was asked if I would like to enroll in the Agro-Business Management (ABM) course offered by the institute. I initially relented, but then informed them that I would prefer to leave it as a second option. So much for preparation!
Following this, I was asked the cliched question — ‘Tell us about yourself’ — which I answered reasonably well, highlighting my background, my hobbies (blogging, basketball) and my accomplishments (class representative etc).
Then followed a few questions on statistics, probability and simple mathematics. I answered all well, save two — one probability query, in which I mixed up the basic concept and a definition of disjoint events, for which I incorrectly rattled off all about independent events. I got so confused that they had to explain the concept to me and not becasue I didn’t know the answer, but because I was just too stressed. The lack of comfort showed so much on my face that one of the panel members actually said, “Don’t feel tensed! Be cool. It is not a stress interview.”
When asked what I do in my free time, I mentioned my hobbies once more. The younger of the two panelists seemed very interested in blogging — he questioned me on the contents of my blog and even noted down my blogsite! I started to feel a little better about myself and hoped that he would visit it before deciding my fate!
They then asked if I had any questions for them, to which I replied in the negative. I thanked them and smiled, leaving the room confidently. That was the end of my interview.
Two months later, I found that I have made it — I got a convert and am presently the first student out here at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Gathering from my experience, I would say that the interviewers look for passion, ability and enthusiasm in a candidate, coupled with decent knowledge of current events and decent English language skills.
Get in there confidently and you’ll emerge victorious!
Source: www.rediff.com/getahead
Posted by TCYonline.com on
Written By Krishnan Sekar
The CAT results have been declared and IIM hopefuls are now focussed on acing the secong leg of the admissions process — the group discussions (GD) and the personal interview (PI).
To help students prepare themselves for all the possible twists and turns a personal interview can take, we publish first-hand experiences of students who managed to breeze through their PI and others who crashed and burned.
Here, Krishnan Sekar, a first-year student at IIM Calcutta, shares his IIM Indore interview as a part of the CAT 2006 selection process.
I am a mechanical engineer, with 30 months of work-experience in the manufacturing and the software industries. Once I cleared the CAT, I received a total of 5 calls — from IIM A, C, I, K and L. I eventually decided on IIM Calcutta, however, here I recount my interview with IIM Indore.
The interview panel consisted a gentleman and a lady.
At the Personal Interview: Gentleman (G), Lady (L) and Me
When it was my turn, I walked into the room and wished both of them.
G starts off with the question of why I shifted from the manufacturing sector to the software sector.
I was expecting this, so had a well-prepared answer and was quite convincing.
G: What was your role in Bharat Forge ?
Me: I was in the production line. I then proceeded to give the details of my role and responsibilities, which part of the line I had handled etc.
G: Since you are mechanical engineer, let’s try a few questions on that.
Me: Sure, sir
After this for the next 5 minutes, I answered a whole lot of technical questions relating to my mechanical engineering. I did quite well in this part of the interview and impressed the panel.
Next, we moved on to the work-experience part.
G: Describe your current job profile?
Me: I am currently working in the automotive embedded domain. (I went on to explain the entire life cycle to him.)
I was then asked a couple of questions on simulation and its application, as that was my field of expertise. A couple of more questions on my work, which were pretty straightforward, and I was through with the work experience part. This lasted for about 5 minutes.
Next came the general part, and it is over to the lady. I had mentioned reading fiction, cricket and writing as my interests.
L: So what do you read?
Me: I mentioned a few authors and the type of books I read.
We settled on Jeffrey Archer finally.
L: Name a couple of his books that you have read.
Me: As the Crow Flies and Not a Penny more, Not A Penny Less
L: What did u like the most about the second book?
Me: I said a few things about the book. I also mentoned that the last line was great — where they realise that they have to return the money (You will have to read the book to understand this part).
Both seemed to agree with me on this. We spent the next few minutes discussing the reasons for the protagonist’s imprisonment and other related issues.
L: What is your opinion on celebrity endorsements? Do you think it affects their performance?
Me: No. (I then gave the example of Sachin Tendulkar). Players are signed up to endorse products only when they are performing. (I substantiated my viewpoint with a few more examples.)
L: But should Sachin endorse products? Is he an authority on toothpastes, cars etc?
Me: No ma’am, cricket is what he is best at, but the reason he is asked to endorse products is because he has a huge fan following and might be able to influence people.
L: Would you be influenced by him?
Me: Not really, I would not buy a product just because he is endorsing it.
L: But others might get influenced?
Me: Yes, that might happen but since the final decision is in the hands of the consumer, the celebrity should not be blamed for endorsing the product. Being public figures, I feel the only place they should draw the line is when it comes to endorsing alcoholic drinks and cigarettes, things that are harmful to health.
L: So you follow cricket. I know you would have prepared about the World Cup. So I am not going to ask you that. Name a couple of women cricketers from India.
Me: Meetali Raj and Anjum Chopra.
Then there were a whole lot of questions relating to players from yesteryear. I was thankfully able to answer all of them, which in my opinion was the clincher.
They then grilled me for a couple of minutes on my writing. The general part of my interview went on for a little over 10 minutes.
End of interview
I made it to IIM Indore when the results were declared. This probably is an example of how good things can be during an interview. Prepare yourself for questions on your areas of interest and on general knowledge, don’t try to memorise facts that you expect to be discussed or will impress the interviewers, you might just end up getting confused and that will go against you.
Source: www.rediff.com
Posted by TCYonline.com on September 21, 2007
How many times have you seen a candidate yelling at the top of his/ her voice during a Group Discussion?
It is a sureshot way to ruin his/ her chances of getting admission to a top B-School. We feature the more common gaffes students make that could ensure a speedy exit and elimination from a GD, as well as the evaluation sheet used by panelists to judge your performance.
List of don’ts for your GD
~ Project a shabby image by wearing wrinkled clothes and unpolished shoes.
~ Start clarifying the meaning of the topic from the examiner as soon as it is announced.
~ As soon as the GD starts, jump into the fray with wrong facts and figures.
~ Sit on the fence throughout the discussion.
It is advisable to take a stand (in favour or against the topic), as this will help you be more aggressive in the GD.
~ Never agree to anyone else’s point of view. Disagreement with everyone will guarantee you more enemies.
~ Resort to negative body language; sit with your arms and legs crossed, stare at your GD members, point fingers at others, make a fist at another and sit at the edge of the chair.
~ Maintain a sardonic smile on your face throughout the GD. This will seem, to the examiners, that you feel superior to the other members of the group.
~ Do not let fellow candidates speak and, if someone is making a good point, interrupt him/her mid-way and put forth a completely unrelated point.
~ Use words like yaar, um, etc, at every juncture and use abbreviations and acronyms, without explaining them. This will alienate you from the group.
~ Make wisecracks, in the hope of showing off your wit.
~ Yawn or maintain a blank look on your face.
~ Give subjective opinions which are not supported by facts or figures.
~ Only listen, and never speak.
GD evaluation sheet for panelists
The weightage of evaluating parameters varies from B-School to B-School, but the general framework more or less remains the same.
We have attempted to reproduce the actual criteria used in Group Discussions to top B-Schools, which is circulated to the respective evaluators before the start of a Group Discussion.
You can download this sheet, which comprises three parts:
i. Evaluation table with parameters
ii. Rating key
iii. Instructions for panelists to help eliminate subjectivity
